Dragon Genesis: I Can Create Dragons

Chapter 381: No ranks, no titles, no exceptions.

“We need to catch the traitor.”

Nymeris spoke in a solemn tone, and just as the rest of the elders were about to reluctantly agree with her words—

“All of this is too inefficient.”

Lavinia finally spoke up.

“…what?”

Nymeris blinked slowly.

“Be it interrogating every single Velmourn, checking everyone’s belongings, or separating the people into small groups to limit contact— all of this is too inefficient.

Not only do we not have enough manpower to carry out such an operation, even if we do prepare ourselves and push through it regardless, people won’t survive the Winter.”

Lavinia shook her head, her words attracting everyone’s attention.

And at this time, Lavinia said something truly Velmourn-like,

“Winter is coming, the situation here is going to get even rougher. Velmourn society is different from normal people; it thrives on Unity and Work.

And just like Elder Aelindra said, your actions will destroy Velmourn unity and raise too many suspicions.

However, it isn’t just the Unity that will be affected—

Work will too.”

Lavinia paused for a moment. The Elders at the Iron Council obviously understood the Velmourn situation better than her, so she was sure they could follow along with her.

“First, we would need to hire a separate group of manpower to follow through with the investigation, and the amount of time we would need to complete the investigation would depend on the number of people we hire.

If we hire more, the investigation will end in a few weeks. But we are not in a position to hire more. Aside from the fact that the traitor might be among the people we hire, every single Velmourn works for twelve or more hours. Those who do not are already not in a condition to work more. In such a desperate situation, if we hire more people for an entirely different job, the work they left behind would be difficult to cover.

Even if we squeeze ourselves, it would be difficult to gather more than fifty people. Of course, the number is just my estimate—you would know more about this than me—but my point still stands: since we cannot hire too many people, the amount of time the investigation goes on increases.

In the worst case, it might even continue for months.

Not to mention the investigation itself would disrupt people’s flow, hindering their work again.

If something like this continues for long, production will fall, Winter will arrive and…

We will not be prepared.”

Lavinia mentioned everything directly, and the more she spoke, the more solemn the elders’ expressions got.

Yes, just as the princess expected, they could easily follow her line of thought. Actually, they had also thought about the same problem, but they did not have any other choice.

The Velmourns would perish even if the traitor was not captured. They could not allow the enemy to have this level of information regarding them.

The traitor had to be caught, even if it meant following desperate, shaky, and inefficient plans.

But…

When Lavinia called them out like this, all Elders just had one question in their minds—

“Then do you have a better plan?”

Morvain questioned.

It was a long shot, honestly. Even the Matriarch herself didn’t believe the princess would have something but…

These were the Velmourns’ saviors she was talking to.

Somewhere in her heart, she had a flicker of hope—just like the rest of the Elders.

And Lavinia did not disappoint.

“You cannot hire more people,

So just hire two.”

The princess spoke with a light smile on her face.

Morvain narrowed her eyes, and the princess began explaining—

“Me and Kael.

Leave the traitor to us.

I promise you that our actions will not hinder work in any way, the people will not even know what is happening and—

You will have the traitor in a week.”

“In a week…?”

Nymeris blinked, unable to believe what she was hearing.

Was something like this even possible?

How could just two people find a traitor within a week?

She didn’t think it was possible even if they hired more than half of Velmourns to investigate.

Morvain too remained silent. Normally, she would have warned Lavinia and told her to be careful with her words. She would have regarded her words as empty promises, a child’s overconfidence and immaturity but…

After what happened today, it was difficult for her to call the two children in front of her immature or childish.

If they said something… the Matriarch thought they had earned enough credit through their actions that their words were considered as seriously as the Elders sitting at the Iron Council.

After all, this was the reason she invited them to the round table, did she not?

Therefore, instead of calling them out or completely disregarding their words—

“Can you really do that?”

Morvain simply looked into Lavinia’s eyes and—

“I can.”

Lavinia nodded.

However, before Morvain could say or do anything else—

“Although I would like to give a fair warning.”

Lavinia said something unexpected.

“A warning…?”

Morvain frowned in confusion.

“Although I did say that our method will not hinder the people or their work, this did not mean we have some magical way to find the traitor.

Our method will be extreme—much more extreme than what the Elders suggested.

We will not just question every Velmourn, search their belongings, or group them into small closed groups.

We are going to watch for behaviour.”

Lavinia declared.

“…behaviour?”

Morvain’s frown deepened.

“We are going to keep an eye on every single Velmourn at all times. We will listen to all your conversations, we will record all your actions, and we will track all your movements.

We will know and see everything—even your private moments, moments you do not wish to share with the rest of the world.

None of your people will have any privacy whatsoever.

And…”

Lavinia then stared at the elders of the Iron Council and—

“You all will be the same.

No ranks, no titles, no exceptions.

From the youngest child to the Matriarch herself—everyone will be watched.”

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